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Washington D.C. – Today, Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX), Chairman of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, released the following statement in response to President Obama’s announcement that he will be withdrawing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed ozone standards:

“I am pleased that the President has heeded the calls of Americans and stopped his Administration’s unnecessary and burdensome actions to tighten EPA ozone regulations. The rule would have been one of the most costly in U.S. history, and the underlying science and process defied common sense. This is a step in the right direction, but the President needs to do more to halt EPA’s job-killing assault on the economy and ensure Americans access to affordable and reliable energy supplies.

“Just yesterday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) released a report showing that the implementation of EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule would result in the loss of thousands of megawatts of capacity, and cause outages for Texas power users. This is one of a series of EPA rules and actions based on shaky science and even shakier economics. In light of the President’s announcement, our Committee will postpone our September 9th hearing examining the science behind the proposed ozone rule. However, in the coming weeks, we will continue to closely monitor attempts by the EPA, such as the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, to increase onerous regulations. We must continue to rely on sound scientific means of protecting our environment, and yet be sensible enough not to wreck our economy.”